2 weeks to fit a lot in! Joburg, Namibia, Capetown

Hi all

We're heading over to South Africa in a few weeks for just over 2 week's holiday with a fortnight in country (arrive 10:00am on Sunday 4th, depart evening of Sunday 18th). One of my friends lived in Namibia and has recommended visiting and given us a good list of places to go, so we have a provisional itinerary which in broad terms looks like the following - any opinions on whether this is the best use of time would be greatly appreciated. I am conscious we've only given ourselves 2 days for a safari in Madikwe, I've been on a safari in India and found that was sufficient but SA is on a much larger scale. It's also quite pricey, £350ish per night, so keen to control costs. We chose Madikwe as another friend is South African and highly recommended it, we were originally considering Kruger but it's in wrong direction from Joburg and I would prefer to avoid internal flights were possible (too much 'dead time')

Initial outline itinerary:
4th - arrive Joburg 10:00am and travel to Madikwe by hire car (hopefully, in time for afternoon tour)
5th - madikwe park tours am and pm
6th - leave Madikwe PM for Gabarone for an overnight (worth just going for extra day in Madikwe?)
7 -9th leave Gabarone to travel through to Windhoek area, stops at various points.
10-12 Travel through south Namibia, including Aranos area and Fish River Canyon
13-15 West Coast of SA, incl Cederberg and Clanwilliam, maybe Namaqua, maybe Vioolsdrif area for some rafting etc.
16-18 Cape Town area, return hire car in Cape Town, internal flight back to Joburg to return to UK

Any views on whether the above looks sensible would be appreciated. Also, hints and tips on how easy this is to do - hassles, hire car through 3 different countries, driving distances etc - gratefully received.

Many thanks!

Hey inactionman,
To be honest, your itinereray seems quite hectic. Considering that you will be travelling from Joburg-Windhoek-Cape Town in the amount of days you've listed, I would not spend 3 nights on the safari. 2-3 nights is the normal length for a safari in South Africa. Madikwe is a nice reserve and as you mention, it makes more sense to visit this than any other on your journey.

I would spend some time planning the journey from Gabarone to Windhoek. A lot of dessert in between. Might be good to know where to fill petrol and spend the night. I'm sure your friends in Windhoek can help you with this.
In Namibia, make sure you visit sossusvlei, this is probably the biggest attraction when heading south.

You could easily spend a few extra nights in Cape Town. Not sure of how intereseting the west coast of south africa is, but if you don't find it very exciting, consider driving for longer stretches and getting to Cape Town a day sooner.

Enjoy your adventure!

The West Coast of South Africa is beautiful and definitely worth a visit e.g. the West Coast National Park, Paternoster, Namaqualand flowers (season dependent) etc :-)

Personally, I think you are trying to do way too much ! Of course I understand that you want to fit in as much as possible into your 2 weeks in Southern Africa, but it should also be enojyable and realistic, and your itinerary isnt at all in my opinion. For example, its 1500km from Gaborone to Sossusvlei. Add to this that you shouldnt drive more than 60km per hour in Namibia (and even slower in Botswana) and you definitely dont want to drive at night...

I think you should really reconsider your itinerary. Maybe fly to Joburg, travel to Madikwe and do a safari there, travel back to Joburg to fly to Windhoek, spend time in Namibia and South Africa and fly home.

Ta all for comments - we'll maybe look to go to Madikwe and back to Joburg, and then fly to Cape Town for a drive up the coast. This will cut out the Botswana element, but give us more time for the other areas.

We're waiting to hear from the resort the best way to get there, as we originally thought we'd get a hire car and make our own way up but it might be easier to sort alternative means simply to get to and from O R Tambo airport. I'm not sure if the resorts offer anything here, maybe a shuttle or charter, otherwise we'll look into coaches etc.

#4
I think that is a good decision. And i would really consider spending an additional night in Madikwe. You will need time to get there and get away from it (no matter if you self drive or not).

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